‘Joburg has its own momentum’: towards a vernacular theorisation of urban change

This
paper came out of my recently completed PhD thesis. The aim of the PhD project
was to examine the effects which private-sector led regeneration is having on
Johannesburg’s inner-city and the communities who are living there. The
arguments and theoretical positions which I develop in this paper emerged
largely as a response to what I found to be the inadequacies of the
contemporary urban studies literature to do justice to and make sense of the
changes taking place in the area.

The
research involved 9 months of qualitative fieldwork, during which 103
interviews were conducted. A broad range of actors were interviewed, including
social and private-sector housing providers, building managers, employees of
agencies financing urban regeneration projects, local government officials,
security personnel, members of the local Community Policing Forum (the South
African equivalent of a neighbourhood watch), activists and residents living in
renovated inner-city buildings. These interviews were supplemented with
participant observation, including attending practitioner workshops, planning
meetings and social events in the inner-city and participating in security
patrols.

As
the research unfolded I found that what I had initially hypothesised to be a
negative and exclusionary process was in fact much more nuanced and
complicated. The findings which emerged constantly pointed to diverse
practices, intentions, ideologies and outcomes which consistently did not add
up to one coherent narrative or conclusion. Whilst the process is
private-sector led, the state remains proactively involved; housing companies are
commercially-oriented and profit-seeking, but they still actively find ways to
provide housing for lower-income communities; making the area conducive to
upgrading and investment relies on, at times heavy-handed, private policing,
but even amongst those doing the policing there are discourses and practices
around community-building, social cohesion and inclusion; privatised and
securitised public spaces are being created, but these are creating opportunities
for people to utilise and enjoy these spaces in ways they previously could not;
evictions were rife at the start of the process and poor communities continue
to be displaced, but at the same time other marginalised and previously
excluded people are being integrated into the central region of the city.

I
explain these findings and dynamics as emerging out of the politics which
characterise contemporary South Africa and the particular lived and material
realities of the inner-city. Whilst the post-apartheid government has been
criticised for the widespread adoption of neoliberal policies and practices,
there are also concerted efforts in place on the part of the state and local
actors which serve more inclusive and redistributive ends. Despite ongoing
tensions, deprivations and inequalities, South African society has also
undergone momentous change. I demonstrate that the conditions of democratic
transition and the developmental/redistributive inclination in policy
frameworks and state projects has created dispositions amongst those involved
in urban regeneration which, whilst still retaining commercial/neoliberal
impulses, also prompt them to conceive and practice regeneration in ways which
make inclusion of the marginalised real priorities and outcomes.
Simultaneously, the inner-city is characterised by dire living conditions, poor
service delivery and maintenance standards and precarious livelihoods. Rather
than being disconnected from these circumstances, urban regeneration
practitioners have internalised them and formulate responses which are sensitive
to the difficulties which many people living in this environment face. They
therefore adopt more socially–aware and developmentally-focussed practices, even
though they remain confined within a market-based paradigm. I consequently
theorise the contradictions, ambiguity and hybridity of the process as a vernacular
approach to urban regeneration.

Through this
theorisation I try to demonstrate the importance of understanding the
motivating logics, spatial and structural conditions and agency which shape all
processes of urban change. My approach is informed by and aims to contribute to
post-colonial theory and comparative urbanism. The paper draws on the emphasis
in post-colonial theory that concepts and ideas emanating from the West are
parochial and limited in their scope. Therefore rather than reading the process
unfolding in Johannesburg as another iteration of globally pervasive
gentrification, the paper argues that it is a process shaped by the logics,
politics, competing agendas and idiosyncrasies of a particular spatial and
temporal context. But drawing on and adding to the comparative urbanism
literature, it argues that rather than seeing this case as a unique exception,
it is one which draws attention to the multiplicity, diversity and contradictions
which are shared by all urban societies. The article therefore aims to be
propositional in advocating vernacular approaches to researching and
understanding process of urban change. It is hoped that a vernacular framework
does justice to the variety which exists in all urban settings and calls
attention to the complex dynamics and outcomes which are always unfolding.
Rather than seeing gentrification or neoliberal restructuring as inevitable
outcomes of global processes, research needs to understand the particular
confluences of agendas, actions and factors which give rise to these outcomes,
or potentially prevent them from occurring. Thus although the research and this
paper tells a unique story, the aim is to understand why it is unique and, through this, to inspire other studies which
take individual cases seriously, but weave them into a shared account and
appreciation of urban diversity.

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Urban Studies is the leading interdisciplinary journal for critical urban research and issues. Since it was first published in 1964 to provide an international forum for research into the fields of urban and regional studies, the journal has expanded to encompass the increasing range of disciplines and approaches that have been brought to bear on urban and regional issues